Early Death in Those with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Those with autism spectrum disorder have a shorter life expectancy. Here’s why.

Two recent studies will undoubtedly shock individuals and families affected by autism spectrum disorder (ASD). These studies show a much earlier age of death in those with ASD as compared with the general population.

One study, published in the American Journal of Public Health in April 2017, finds the life expectancy in the United States of those with ASD to be 36 years old as compared to 72 years old for the general population. They note that those with ASD are 40 times more likely to die from various injuries. About 28 percent of those with ASD die of an injury. Most of these are suffocation, asphyxiation, and drowning. The risk of drowning peaks at about 5 to 7 years old. As 50 percent of those with ASD wander, water safety and swim lessons are a must. GPS trackers are also available for purchase should a child wander or get lost. This makes finding the child or adult much easier and faster.

The other study was published by the British Journal of Psychiatry in January 2018. This was a Swedish study showing similar results but elaborating on other causes of death as well. This study showed a life expectancy in those with ASD with a cognitive disability (or a learning disability) at 39.5 years versus 70 years for the general population studied. Those with ASD without a learning disability had an average age of death at about 58 years. The leading causes of death in those with ASD in this large study were heart disease, suicide, and epilepsy. The suicide rate among those with ASD was 9 times higher than the general population. There have only recently been studies showing the increased risk of suicide in those with autism spectrum disorder. Future studies will help us to understand what causes this increased suicide risk so that we can help to fight it. It should also be noted that 20-40 percent of those with ASD have seizures compared to 1 percent of the general population, causing this increased risk of death by seizures.

With all of this in mind, if you are a parent of a child or adult with ASD, you should teach water safety and swim lessons. You should also have a GPS tracker to find your child quickly should they wander off. To decrease your child’s risk of suicide, seek out mental health professionals early and treat mental health issues as they arise. These mental health issues may be depression, anxiety, ADHD, tantrums, aggression, or other mental health problems. Your child will likely need a counselor and/or psychiatrist at some point. Also, make sure your child is evaluated for seizures. Please note that your child’s risk for seizures does increase as he or she gets older. For example, your child might develop a seizure disorder in adolescence. Your child may need an electroencephalogram (EEG) to evaluate for possible seizures. If your child has a seizure disorder, he or she will be treated with an anticonvulsant. You should make sure your child regularly sees a primary care physician to treat medical issues and reduce the risk of heart disease. In order to get access to these needed resources, check with your state for programs such as Medicaid and the Medicaid waiver program.

References

1. Joseph Guan, Guohua Li. Injury mortality in individuals with autism. American Journal of Public Health. April 2017

It really isn't hard to find autistic people explaining what sucks about their lives and describing their despair. If it's not immediately obvious to you why someone autistic would want to kill themselves, I'd call that a lack of empathy for the population you're writing about.

The answer to suicidality in autism isn't some treatment focused on the autistic person. It's for normal people to stop mistreating us, complaining endlessly that we're defective burdens, making everywhere unnecessarily loud, making TV shows belittling the idea of romantic relationships for us, and judging us negatively in 5 seconds due to body language. Normal people already know how to do those things, but they choose not to.

The role of isolation and disconnection in suicide has been known since Durkheim founded sociology. Gee, I wonder why autistic people would be lonely? Among other things, adult society doesn't teach children by example that bullying is wrong.

Normal people would also have to give up their sense of superiority, which feels good. Rarely will they write about that topic.

They also exclude autistic people from the workplace meaning they often live in poverty, have poor quality housing, etc. Poverty or social isolation alone is enough to make people suicidal. Poverty also damages health. We don't need a study to find out why autistic people are suicidal, you only have to ask them. Autistic people are even excluded from conversations about autism!

Yes, but what more can I as a parent do for my son? We have run the gamut with no more ideas left. He wants to die. He won’t stop trying. Yes I finally made him leave & he lives in a homeless shelter because I’ll be damned if I will just sit there & watch him do it. His entire life has been pain. For him & for us. His brothers, parents, nephews & niece .....how many ambulances, police, EMTs, fire trucks have to come here until it’s over? There has been NO STONE LEFT UNTURNED. He’s going to do it. Somehow we have all had to resign ourselves that this is going to happen.

Agreed. But the study is simply averaging the ages at death of those with Autism Spectrum Disorder. So, this does not mean everyone will die by age 39. It just means that many die much younger for the reasons stated in the article.

What horrible and depressing article.
Why waste time, effort and probably money researching such a statistic.
Use that time and effort to improve people with autism lives.
As the parent of a child with autism, I found this article very upsetting.

I agree. I am a parent of a 13 yo daughter with ASD. I find it disturbing too. But knowledge is power. If we know the suicide rate is higher or that our children are more likely to die from heart disease or drowning, then we can better understand where to put resources. We need data to back up intervention plans otherwise the government won’t pay for them. We need to know how to better help our children. Best wishes on your journey.

Yes I see your point.
My daughter is almost 13 too.
My daughter has severe autism so (certainly at the moment and in the foreseeable future) she doesn’t understand the concept of suicide.
Drowning is surely a result of poor supervision and neglecting to teach the person how to swim-my daughter loves swimming so not a likely outcome for her thankfully.
Heart disease is worrying, indicating that a person with autism perhaps isn’t getting great health care and dietary advice, which should be addressed (I’m in UK not USA)

I just want to comment as a parent, we are anti aba. But what is it teaching? At the age of 3 my son is to learn he is made wrong, and to be like perfect Johnny, while he is sitting in lights and sounds that physically hurt him(unless he flaps his arms then the lights and sounds are ok), but “here’s a fish cracker, good job being like Johnny.” No wonder the suicide rate is high. This “therapy” is tourcher and abuse, why don’t we teach helpful techniques to handle sensitives and sensory, learn to listen and understand dangerous/safe. Instead of hounding them to be like a typical child! I would be completely embarrassed if my job was to teach kids that had a disability to act like a kid that didn’t. I have searched the internet for one person who appreciates there aba, haven’t found one. But I’ve found a very large community, across many nations who are screaming to stop abusing our children, and us typical people refuse to listen. It’s maddening! So, this is our current situation, my child will not be accepted in school because he is autisic, but if Mr. Johnny wants to be come a girl, he must be accepted running around in frilly dresses and going to the girls bathroom. I cannot process this without rage.

My son has had intense ABA since his diagnosis of severe Autism at 2 ½. He is now 21 and has a full, happy life. ABA has taught him how to cope and behave in society and has given him a voice. He has never spoken, but with ABA techniques he has learned to use an iPad to communicate his needs and wants. Of all the therapies we have tried, ABA has been, by far the most effective.

According to the Asperger's sufferer at Asperger's Experts, ABA was frustrating and unhelpful to high-functioning students. We need something better for all students with autism. His solution is called "getting out of defense mode." It worked for me & my husband. Bottom line, those with MTHFR homozygous gene mutations have up to 70% mitochondrial dysfunction, that can be triggered at any time, causing the aging process to accelerate overnight. What needs to happen is certain "alternatives" need to become mainstream and covered by insurance. It would be cost-affective, as organ transplant and dialysis are very expensive. We could prevent these things from happening.

The advice for traditional treatment for mental illness in people with ASD is incredibly erroneous. Medications add to the toxic lode, which leads to organ failure, early dementia, and other physical affectations. People with ASD need coverage for gentle and natural detoxification measures, methylated vitamins, and gut healing! They also need coverage for STEM CELL therapies. People with ASD can live longer lives. They need the correct and appropriate therapies and access to them. This angers me tremendously!

Just where are we to go for mental health providers? My 16 yr old on spectrum was turned away for cognitive behavioral therapy because “ABA is what she needs.” No, she didn’t need a cookie for not crying, she needed to be able to communicate her hopes and fears and someone help frame her ways of thinking about herself. There is no mental health system in East Tennessee, or most of the nation. Wait lists are months long, and when you do finally get an appointment the answer is to drug up everyone. The mental care system is horribly, disgustingly broke. Parents and those on spectrum are left to suffer alone.

I agree. We need more resources and funding for mental health. Our politicians (democrat and republican) talk out of both side of their mouths. They say they believe in more mental health funding but then take away money every year in most states. From research, we know that number of Americans with mental illness is growing. We need to call our representatives and tell them enough is enough- we need more funding for mental health!!

I had a good therapist here in Minnesota free of charge and all of a sudden I couldn't see her anymore. They wanted me to do DBT and it would cost me over $100 a session which is something I couldn't afford. Then this ''psychiatrist'' I never met before was trying to drug me up like you said it seems to be the answer to everything. This psychiatrist was trying to put me on 6 medications and was talking about ''more aggressive medication management in the papers'' he gave to me. Why is it that people seem to think putting those with autism on drugs or medication the answer when most of the stuff we experience can simply be solved if people would take the time to educate and understand more about autism? The resources are there just that people are too lazy to look into them. All of this ''mental health professional'' garbage needs to stop to because the few that looked at me were pretty clueless.

The Swedish study clearly shows that the outcome for people with autism and no learning disability differs from these with learning disability. While suicide is the risk of the first group, the study clearly proved that neurological conditions, mainly epilepsy is the most common cause of premature death in persons with autism and learning disability. I feel it should be stated in the article as this issue should be addressed at first place by parents/caregivers in such cases. Otherwise parents might be confused as I could see in the comments above.

There is emerging clinical research showing that treating subclinical epileptiform discharges in children with autism and (yet) no seizures may reduce risk of future epilepsy. More studies are obviously needed in this field if we want to improve the situation.